[Rich Biebel]

30 years ago we sonic tested and Brinell hardness tested all small blocks.

The range from soft to hard was pretty significant.....and a hard block would easily make more power.

Ideal was hard and decently thick cylinder walls.....

.060 over was a lot.....

Cylinder walls were just about always not consistant

Core shift could be ridiculous

You can usually see the cam being off center by the flat machined surface at the face of the cam hole...not concentric

I had one engine I built at home that was so far off center it was silly

The crank and cam centerline were way off center.

So bad I had to get different rods. It was a 383 and I could not get clearance on one side for the rods to block even after grinding and the other side went right by with plenty of clearance.....

Aftermarket and even Bowtie blocks are far better....

Just sayin!!!